The Romanoffs

The Romanoffs

From dailies to picture post-production to VFX, Technicolor talent and technology were woven throughout the 8-part Amazon Studios’ production.

Technicolor Reunites With Mad Men Creator Matt Weiner and His Team for the Jet-Setting Series The Romanoffs

The Romanoffs is creator Matt Weiner’s long-anticipated project, following his iconic, award-winning series Mad Men. This time, the drama unfolds around a group of contemporary characters who believe they are descendants of the Russian royal family, weaving together their separate intriguing stories from around the globe. Timed with the 100th anniversary of the execution of the notorious family in 1918, the anthology series from Amazon Studios reunites Senior Colorist Tim Vincent and the Technicolor team with Weiner, cinematographer Chris Manley, and co-executive producer Blake McCormick.

On-Location Services / Dailies

The project started production in Paris in late July 2017 – spanning the globe from Prague, Toronto, New York City, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Romania, and London – and wrapped with the last of the production footage shot in Hong Kong in April 2018. The Technicolor team was able to expedite dailies no matter where in the world they were shooting. In many of the production locations, this was done via Technicolor’s proprietary Colo-Dailies method.

Technicolor sister facilities in locations such as Paris, London, Toronto, and New York City enabled the team to remotely manage and process the dailies back in Burbank, CA. This allowed the team to consistently and efficiently provide dailies to the cutting room and producers, same as they do for productions shooting right in Los Angeles.

Technicolor dailies producer Connor McIntyre worked closely with The Romanoff’s co-executive producer Blake McCormick’s team as well as production teams in each location to ensure that dailies were processed timely, that cameras used were properly tested and tracked, and that their color pipeline was maintained throughout the entire process.

Technicolor Pulse / Technicolor Visual Effects

In the ever-evolving landscape of streaming content creation, Technicolor offers the workflow innovation and infrastructure to manage change and handle issues of scale. Technicolor Pulse – our secure, web-based asset management platform – was utilized by The Romanoffs team and provided them with a seamless digital pipeline experience. Using Technicolor Pulse, the client delivered upwards of 1.5 million frames across Technicolor and their other VFX vendors, with delivery turnaround averaging less than an hour. By using Technicolor Pulse, the client was given unlimited access and automation, enabling efficiency and full control of their content.

The range of services provided on The Romanoffs also extended to Technicolor VFX. The dedicated VFX team, based within our Post facility, was able to easily handle on-the-fly requests during the post production process, becoming an integrated and seamless resource for The Romanoffs team. Senior producer Alex Knudsen oversaw the visual effects needs, while each of our staff VFX artists, plus additional freelance artists, were tapped to support seven of the eight episodes, including episode #106 which is a stand-alone episode that was shot and will be streamed anamorphic. In total, the team completed over 300 shots including driving and window comps, phone and TV comps, specific details such as Paris windows, and standard removals such as reflections, tape and lights.

Picture Post-Production

With a history spanning the Mad Men years, Matt Weiner turned once again to Technicolor’s Tim Vincent to color-finish his latest series. Having already established a baseline of collaborating together, they spoke the same language when it came to developing the look and feel of the new show.

“On Mad Men, we were able to collaborate and create a look that represented Matt’s and Chris’ vision,” said Vincent, “and having that foundation of working together allowed us to take on The Romanoffs, which is essentially creating eight different worlds in one series.”

The filmmakers created a vision for each episode and then, working with a base LUT system, it could be skewed to whatever theme was required when traveling around the world shooting, followed by traditional collaboration in the bay to refine the final look.

“They did shoot all around the world,” explained Vincent, “and in some instances the location they chose was purposeful to go along with the storyline. There is definitely an intentional choice of color, mood, environment, and pallet for each episode. So the look of each episode takes on the theme of the story being told.”

Elaborating on the best part about working on this series, Vincent concluded: “First, I get to work with incredibly creative and talented people who embrace me as a member of a truly collaborative team. Secondly, creating new looks and new worlds – and being able to create eight separate looks for eight separate episodes – is very gratifying creatively.”